Root Divine Artifact

The Dao Ancestor imparted the Mystic Gate; three thousand guests gathered at Purple Cloud Palace.

In the ancient Primordial Era, before the Heavenly Court had been established, ancient cultivators refined qi and sought Dao Enlightenment. There were no systematic cultivation arts. Those ancient cultivators who attained the Dao and became gods were often masters of a single Dao.

The True God Realm was equivalent to Yin Ming's current True Immortal Realm—the highest realm ancient cultivators could reach.

Later, after the Dao Ancestor severed the Three Corpses to attain Dao Enlightenment, using the Dao to give birth to the Mystic and using the 'Mystic Gate' to unite all Daos, realms above the True Immortal Realm came into being.

However, those whose godhood had already taken shape had to reincarnate and recultivate if they wished to enter the Mystic Gate.

They would have to discard thousands, even tens of thousands of years of divine-path cultivation. Not only was it a terrible waste, it also meant risking their lives.

Thus, only after the Dao Ancestor and the three thousand guests deduced it together did this art come into existence: the Primordial God-Devil Forging Art.

Zhu Bajie's jade slip contained no introduction to any of this.

Half of it was information Yin Ming had obtained by seeking dragons and locating acupoints in the tombs of his forebears.

The other half was reasonable conjecture based on that information.

Fortunately, heaven and earth had entered the Age of Dharma Decline. Otherwise, he would never have been able to gather so many secret accounts and the true arts kept hidden by great sects.

"..."

"The Primordial God-Devil Forging Art! The artifacts it forges can broadly be divided into two kinds: Divine Artifacts and Immortal Artifacts."

Immortal Artifacts resembled the natal treasures in novels and storybooks—treasures or weapons capable of growing alongside their 'artifact master.'

Yin Ming had no intention of forging an Immortal Artifact. What he lacked was a cheat that could let him cling to a powerful thigh, not something that would grow with him.

The second kind, Divine Artifacts, were like supreme treasures nurtured by heaven and earth, strange objects seemingly manifested from the Great Dao itself.

Divine Artifacts could further be divided into Root Divine Artifacts, or Innate Spiritual Treasures, and Sub-Root Divine Artifacts, or Acquired Spiritual Treasures.

To forge an Innate Spiritual Treasure, the difficulty lay in one radish, one pit.

A complete law of heaven and earth was needed. In other words, no immortal could have obtained the Dao Fruit of that particular law.

Otherwise, it could only become an Acquired Spiritual Treasure.

From the terms innate and acquired—

It was not hard to infer that the birth of Innate Spiritual Treasures had a dividing point: the establishment of the Heavenly Court.

By then, heaven and earth had already passed through several Great Calamities. Of the three thousand guests who had once gathered at Purple Cloud Palace, not many remained alive and whole.

The Dao Ancestor gathered the Innate Spiritual Treasures of the world and refined them together into the Investiture of the Gods, making it the foundation for establishing the Heavenly Court.

The Heavenly Court occupied the vast majority of Orthodox God positions and laid down heavenly rules and laws. Without receiving an immortal registry, one could not attain a divine position, much less privately forge a Root Divine Artifact.

The few Root Divine Artifacts that remained came to be called Innate Spiritual Treasures. It meant that these treasures had been born before the Heavenly Court and were not bound by heavenly rules or laws.

Take the Marriage God, the Old Man Under the Moon, for example. The red thread, Marriage Tree, and Marriage Ledger were formed by splitting apart the Innate Spiritual Treasure known as the Red Embroidered Ball.

So long as the Heavenly Court did not fall, no one could attain Orthodox Godhood through 'marriage.' At most, beings such as the Rabbit God, who governed ill-fated bonds, or the Tree of Bitter Love, which governed love between humans and demons, could arise.

In terms of divine rank, they were all Subordinate Gods beneath the Orthodox God of Marriage. If forged into artifacts, they would be Acquired Spiritual Treasures.

"..."

"Reverently honoring the sages who created this art, this little immortal, Yin Ming, shall forge an artifact with a gourd! I shall recultivate the Great Dao."

Yin Ming sat cross-legged, placed his five hearts toward heaven, entered meditation, and began visualization.

Within his Sea of Consciousness, the Corpse-Liberation Artifact floated in the air, with no Primordial Spirit residing inside.

The Primordial God-Devil Forging Art began to circulate. His Corpse-Liberation Immortal realm continuously dissipated, becoming firewood for the forging.

Thunder Tribulation, gang winds, Yang Spirit, bathing in flames...

His Divine Sense shrank from covering a radius of one kilometer, to nine hundred meters, eight hundred meters, seven hundred meters...

Until it could no longer leave his body to perceive the world. In the end, even his night vision vanished.

After being tempered by his immense spiritual power, the Jade Gourd became like true gold forged in fire, gleaming brilliantly and releasing boundless divine light as it echoed the Great Dao laws hidden in the unseen.

A magical artifact nurtured by heaven and earth was the finest vessel for refining a Spiritual Treasure.

As a Corpse-Liberation Artifact, it was naturally compatible with Yin Ming's soul. Once forged into a Spiritual Treasure, it would also save him the labor of refining it.

"Buzzz..."

Suddenly, the Jade Gourd began trembling without end.

Dao essence coiled around its entire body as countless Law Fragments manifested.

Like mountains, like water, like blades and swords, like wind and clouds, like thunder and lightning—the three thousand Great Daos transformed without cease, embracing all things and shifting through ten thousand changes.

The golden light around it turned into fine strands, like golden ribbons drifting in the wind. Five-colored auspicious vapor formed hanging clouds, like the Nine-Revolution Golden Core that had just emerged from the furnace of the Old Lord.

"The Immortal Dao Rank contains three thousand laws. Forging a Divine Artifact is entirely like drawing a lottery at random. Any kind of Divine Artifact could be born."

"If this wisp of the 'purity' law were used as the foundation, I could refine a rather good Acquired Spiritual Treasure."

The gourd needed only one final step to become an artifact.

Yin Ming hesitated, sensing the Law Fragment of the word 'purity' within his body.

In this world, he did not need to worry about being punished by the Heavenly Court. He could forge a Root Divine Artifact openly and boldly. His only concern was the quality of the Spiritual Treasure.

A Seven-Circle Wizard stood at a rank equivalent to a primordial god-devil. He did not know whether any positions were still vacant.

Forging an Innate Spiritual Treasure would naturally be cause for joy.

But if he settled for second best, possessing a top-grade Acquired Spiritual Treasure would still count as capital to establish himself and survive.

Now, Yin Ming faced two choices. He could add this wisp of the 'purity' law and meet the minimum requirement, but that would cut off all possibility of forging the gourd into an Innate Spiritual Treasure.

Conversely, though there was a chance of refining an Innate Spiritual Treasure, it was far more likely that he would forge a useless Acquired Spiritual Treasure.

"Acquired Spiritual Treasures number in the thousands upon thousands, but Innate Spiritual Treasures are unique. Having come to another world of the Great Dao, how could I not take a gamble?"

Dawn was near!

Before long, Jeroen Hoven would use his whip to rouse every serf from sleep.

Without hesitation, Yin Ming poured his final wisp of cultivation into the Jade Gourd, completing the final transformation of the Primordial God-Devil Forging Art.

In an instant, the ten-thousand-zhang divine radiance drew inward, the Dao essence dispersed, and countless secret inscriptions formed within it in a flash.

Even the Jade Gourd's jade-like sheen vanished completely, turning it into a dull, weathered Yellow-Skinned Gourd that seemed to have endured endless ages.

"..."

The Divine Artifact was forged!

There were no heaven-shaking phenomena. Every phenomenon had occurred within his own Sea of Consciousness.

Jack and Randy, who shared the room with him, lay sleeping soundly on their stone beds, their snores rumbling like thunder. They noticed nothing unusual.

Yet to powerful beings capable of sensing the sea of laws, this night was no different from a tsunami.

"A new god has been born. The wizards have birthed a new god. The menu has grown much richer."

In the deepest part of the dark caverns of the Ten-Thousand Serpent Cavern, a naked young woman emerged gracefully from a blood pool tens of thousands of zhang wide. Her tender pink snake head licked its lips and spat out a crystal-like skull.

Countless enormous, terrifying serpents twisted through the cavern. They became extraordinarily active in winter; different species began mating and breeding, young snakes shed their skins as their bloodlines evolved, and some even devoured one another.

"Who is it? Why can the divination crystal ball not capture it? Could a new law have been born?"

At the Eternal Black Tower, the sky and stars seemed within arm's reach.

The white-robed wizard meditating atop the tower awoke with a start. He used a crystal ball to divine the new god, and after countless failures, a crazed smile appeared on his wrinkled face.

"Soon! Soon! Just a little more, and I will successfully descend!"

In an unknown Dark Plane, countless shadow-like creatures died, pushing a black planet onward. Suddenly, a crack split open on the planet, and a red eye opened. It glanced into the void before closing once more.